Current weather

Athlete Spotlight

Evans soccer player Caroline Edmonds knows firsthand how things can change from year to year. In 2011, Edmonds was a 16-year-old sophomore and just concerned with playing soccer during the season.

A year later, on a relatively young team, Edmonds has had to step up and assume more of a leadership role.

“It’s different,” said Edmonds. “We’re young this year. I’m used to having a much older (player) to look up to. But now that I’m one of the older ones, it’s on me.

“It’s just different how young we are compared to my freshman and sophomore years.”

The team has been playing well and came out of spring break with an 8-2-2 record and in third place in Region 2-AAAA.

Head coach Kevin Musick said he didn’t expect this to be his team’s year and is proud of where they are so far. Edmonds has been a major part of that success.

“She’s just been a leader out there this year and we looked forward to her coming back from last year,” Musick said. “She went above expectations.”

So far, Edmonds has been an offensive force from her striker position, scoring 19 goals.

“She’s our offensive leader out there,” Musick said. “She and (senior) Brittany Huggins work really well together, allowing us to win as many games as we have this year.”

Familiarity has not bred contempt.

“Me and Brittany work pretty well together,” Edmonds said. “We’ve played (Georgia-South Carolina) Bulls together so we know how each other plays.”

While it’s a ways off, Edmonds, who has already taken the SAT and started the recruiting process, said she would like to go to college. It will have to meet certain criteria, of course.

“I’d like it to have activities I enjoy, like going to church,” Edmonds said. “For soccer, just how they play and the coaching ... the stadiums and everything like that.”

Being close to the area might play a part in her final decision.

“I think I want to stay in Georgia, but if I got offered somewhere in South Carolina, I would go for it,” she said. “But I don’t want to go somewhere too far from home, so I can make trips back and forth easy and my family can watch me.”

That would keep things par for the course.

“I have a bunch of family and we all go to each other’s games,” said Edmonds, who has three younger brothers. “We just like being at sporting events.”

Some days she doesn’t have to go far to watch family. Her cousins Matt and Kyle Anderson play on the Evans baseball team, and her brother Ben will be a freshman at Evans next year.